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The UK Chancellor Philip Hammond announced the spring budget last week and with it a number of policies which effect the energy industry. The UK will be making a transition into a low carbon economy, which will cost around £12.6bn by 2020 and the government plans to recover this money by increasing environmental taxes.

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Annual air pollution limits for 2017 in the city of London have been breached just 5 days into the year. The hourly levels of nitrogen oxide must not be higher than 200 micrograms per cubic meter more than 18 times in the year, which has already been broken this early into the year.

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Renewable energy sources such as wind farms, solar farms and hydropower sources were built at a record pace in 2015 according to a new report. The amount invested in Renewable Energy was also double what was spent on coal and gas power stations. The reports results were gathered prior to the climate change agreement in Paris at the end of 2015, an agreement which is expected to increase spending on renewable energy due to carbon emission targets being set.

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You will know by now that Britain will be holding a referendum on the 23rd of June to decide whether to continue as a member of the European Union. This decision could have a huge impact on the cost of energy for businesses. The Government and more importantly the energy secretary Amber Rudd, have already backed the ‘stay’ campaign and numerous publications stating the impact of a Brexit have been released.

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A new survey has revealed that over half of businesses in the UK feel more grants should be available to make their business more energy efficient. The same survey also found that only a small percentage of businesses believed that more information would be beneficial and an even smaller percentage believed that financial options such as loans would help.

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The Carbon Trust has launched a new fund worth £7 million for SME’s in the UK. Small businesses in the UK can now apply for the money to improve the energy efficiency of equipment and will be available up to the value of £10,000. This can cover the costs of up to 15% of a project, which can also be changing a buildings lighting to a more energy efficient alternative such as LED’s.

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A meeting between oil producing nations over the weekend to discuss a possible output freeze has ended without a deal. It was hoped that this meeting would finally see OPEC cut its production and force the price of oil up. However, the familiar issue of Saudi Arabia not wanting to loose market share to Iran forced the meeting to end without a deal being made.

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The Department for Energy and Climate Change has revealed that almost 25% of all electricity generated in the UK in 2015 came from renewable energy. This sees renewable energy now account for more of the UK’s electricity generation than coal, which fell to just 23%. Sources such as nuclear rose to 21% while gas accounted for 30%.

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With oil prices rising sharply over the past couple of weeks, many are wondering if the price has bottomed out. In early February the price of Brent Crude Oil hit $28 per barrel, however talks of an output freeze between the Saudis and Russia has fuelled a sharp recovery, with prices opening on Monday the 14th of March at just over $40 per barrel.

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The UK Government has announced that they will be cutting subsidies for solar electricity panels by 64%. The cut has been reduced from the original plans to cut the subsidies by 87% after they came under a lot of criticism.

The solar sector has spoken out against the cuts, claiming that they are being forced to go out on their own before they are ready. However the Government energy secretary Amber Rudd has said that consumers shouldn’t be paying the same amount towards subsidies when the price of the technology has gone down.